NPPB and cardiac hypertrophy: The present study confirmed the findings of our previous studies that AsIV treatment attenuates cardiac hypertrophy and apoptosis, as reflected by the (1) decreases in HW/BW, LVW/BW, cardiomyocyte cross-sectional diameter, ventricular wall thickness, and TUNEL-positive cells in myocardial tissue, and (2) decreases in cell size, ANP and BNP mRNA expression and Annexin-V/PI-positive cells in H9C2 cells.